Archive for the ‘Politics and Governance’

The Geopolitical Matrix of Sri Lanka’s Conflict

flags

Image courtesy South Asia Monitor I am appreciative of the fact that this is a seminar on geopolitics. I think geopolitics has been underestimated; perhaps overestimated earlier and then there was a reaction, the pendulum swung too far in the other direction. I am not a geopolitical determinist. I do not believe that geography is destiny. If we look at the case of Cuba for instance, it is very clearly a dramatic rupture from any notion of geopolitical determinism. However, if we have a notion of long term history as recommended by Braudel, Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre, then we understand the importance of place. We are materially and psychologically constituted at least in part by where we are. Though I would not say that who we are is determined in a monocausal sense by where we are, it is certainly one of the decisive and perhaps one of the determinant factors. So Sri Lanka, as most of us know…

Continue reading »

New censorship of SMS news in Sri Lanka

Fax - Small

A fax issued by the Media Centre for National Security today commands that “any news related to National Security and Security Force, the Police should get prior approval from the Media Centre for National Security before dissemination. Therefore, please be kind enough to follow the above instructions with immediate effect.” See large image of the fax sent to media institutions here. Groundviews was told that these measures were most likely taken after SMS news updates on the recent killing of two soldiers in Jaffna, by another soldier. Among other SMS news alerts, Daily Mirror’s SMS alerts covered the story in three updates, also reflected in their Twitter feed. 3 soilders shot dead in Jaffna bit.ly/AaYyvZ #srilanka #lka — Daily Mirror (@DMbreakingnews) March 9, 2012 The first update was at 8.16am, followed by two more at 8.46am (via a Daily Mirror journalist’s iPhone) and 9.19am. The reason for the death of 3 soldiers in Jaffna was due to a personal dispute…

Continue reading »

Rights, Return & Resettlement: A Critique of the TNA Report on Resettlement

TNA in DC

TNA delegation in Washington DC, 2011 The ‘Resettlement Report October- December 2011’, available on the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) temporary website, DBS Jeyraj’s blog and Sangam.org, is the second report of the Tamil National Alliance Research Series, and claims to provide an ‘overview of the return or resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who were displaced during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka’. The report states that its intention is to ‘examine the status of selected groups of resettled or returned persons in the Vanni region’, in this instance the village of Santhapuram in Kilinochchi. It also focuses on two ‘special issues’- plans to relocate those remaining in Menik Farm to Kombavil, and returns to the released High Security Zones in Jaffna. The initiative taken by the TNA to prepare reports on issues of concern such as resettlement is commendable.  The document is also useful in that it provides information on different villages in each report. Yet,…

Continue reading »

Women’s Day 2012: Concerns, challenges and opportunities from Sri Lanka

Screen Shot 2012-03-08 at 9.19.18 AM

For years, Groundviews has featured content that probes gender from a Sri Lankan perspective. For Women’s Day 2012 we have created a Bundlr bundle of over 35 of the most compelling submissions. The content covers a range of issues, from the outrageous denial of the existence of rape by Sri Lanka’s witless Ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya, to the every day violence and abuse faced by women even in Colombo. The articles cover Sri Lanka’s horrible track record of women’s representation in politics and parliament, how vulnerable they are after nearly three decades of war, their role and relevance in reconciliation post-war, how in fact this integral role in reconciliation was marginalised by the LLRC process, how they see themselves and how society perceive them have changed on account of the war, and how innovative ideas to raise public awareness on violence against women can make a difference. One of the most compelling submissions on gender, and indeed, one…

Continue reading »

Forging a Culture of Mutual Tolerance among Sri Lankans: A Path to Reconciliation?

photowide

Photo courtesy Reuters Alertnet “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist” – Friedrich Nietzsche I recently learned that intervening in favor of a “[...] modernist, inclusive Sri Lankan nation that transcends narrow, parochial ethno-cultural identities” (cf. Asanga Welikela’s recent intervention) may unfortunately present you as a Jacobin; especially if you happen to be educated in France; which is apparently by essence revolutionary. One can only imagine my Great Terror after reading such a comment. I still wonder whether Welikela’s approach would have been different had I not been a Sorbonne/Sciences Po educated Sri Lankan. By focusing on the question of “sub-state nations” and by his dismissive position towards secularism, Asanka Welikela’s argumentation displaces my “original position” which has primarily to do with a culture of mutual tolerance and the emergence of Tomorrow’s Sri Lankan, that is to say  “[...] the one who builds…

Continue reading »

Some Comments of Udayasiri Wickramaratne’s ‘Suddek Oba Amathai’

69467_159730797394955_159727720728596_361109_4220244_n

Photo courtesy Suddek Oba Amatai Facebook page It is Lakshman Piyasena, introduced to me by my friend Jayantha Dhanapala, who first told me of Udayasiri Wickramaratne’s play. Piyasena urged Dhanapala and me to see a performance of Suddek Oba Amatai and kept us informed of dates when the play was due to go on the boards in Colombo. I am most grateful to both Messrs. Dhanapala and Piyasena for directing me to this excellent piece of theatre. Accordingly, a few weeks ago, I was privileged to watch a production of Udayasiri Wickremaratna’s notable play Suddek Oba Amatai (A White Man Addresses You). It was a sumptuous evening at the theatre as the play stimulates the senses at the same time as it provides the audience with much food for thought. The dramatic fare on offer entertains the theatergoer as it provokes him/her to think. The acting was very good with Nalin Pradeep Udawela (who plays the role of the sudda or…

Continue reading »

Sri Lanka and its ‘Geneva-problem’

dfus0202

Maria Otero, US Under Secretary, Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights meets Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Secretary of Defence in February 2012. Photo courtesy Lanka Standard. The year 2009 was when the Western group of States at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) made a serious diplomatic blunder, by attempting to pass a resolution against Sri Lanka. The West missed the plot. This was just days after a bloody three decades long war had ended in Sri Lanka; just days after a group which was listed as a terrorist group in their own countries had been comprehensively defeated; at a time when they themselves had already begun a ‘War on Terror’; and soon after they were proven once again to be hypocritical defenders of human rights, given their convenient abstention from voting during the UNHRC Special Session on Israel. It was a serious diplomatic defeat for the West, a significant diplomatic victory for Sri Lanka and its allies. Rise of ‘Eastphalia’ In…

Continue reading »

GENEVA-II & FOUR-LEGGED FURNITURE

ce31f5284fb59a548e292b26c883

Photo courtesy The Star The US resolution at the UN HRC in Geneva has deepened the schisms in Sri Lankan society. That resolution will have the same polarising function as did the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), in defining each political tendency in the popular mind for a while to come. The dominant elements of the centre-right Opposition, the UNP (apart from its ‘Reformists’, that is) opine that there is nothing wrong, or particularly anti-Sri Lankan, with a resolution that calls on the  state to implement its own LLRC recommendations. The TNA has, after a sporadic show of realism, finally taken the line of the Tamil Diaspora’s pro-Tiger lobby by calling on the member states of the UNHRC to support the resolution. For the most part, the cosmopolitan civil society commentators are cheering the resolution on. On the left, the JVP opposes the resolution but opposes the government still more, on economic issues and terms the government’s anti-resolution mobilisation, a tactic.  The…

Continue reading »

Why Sri Lanka must ‘win’ at UNHRC

6934516693_10eb3c38ca_b

Image courtesy Vikalpa from rally held in Colombo on Monday, 27th February. Unclear what the poster means, but the general thrust of it seems to gel with Chaminda’s submission. The following is an excerpt from a statement recently made by Ambassador Eileen Chambarlain Donahoe JD PhD, top US diplomat to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC): The case of Sri Lanka is different and difficult. It is essentially dealing with large-scale civilian casualties, allegations of government involvement in large-scale civilian casualties during a civil war that took place over many years, but ended in 2009. It’s not an ongoing crisis. And for that reason, it’s slightly more challenging. In the circumstances of the world today the fact that it’s not a crisis makes it slightly more difficult. The comment was of particular interest to this writer, as it corresponded to what he noted in a short presentation made at a Sri Lanka-related conference at the Eidgenössische Techniche Hochscule (ETH) in…

Continue reading »

Five Precepts of Identifying a Sri Lankan Traitor

camila_tokka

Image courtesy Transparency International Recently an air of nervousness has insinuated itself in to the Sri Lankan psyche. Doubt and uneasiness seem to be seeping like moisture through invisible social capillaries, carrying a message of treachery.  Evident is an alien concern; being branded foully on this island, which suddenly seems to have become a wellspring of traitors! Since this strange, new phenomenon of escalating treachery could hardly be attributed to ‘something in the water’, its fountainhead must be where that abhorrent label is encountered most frequently – in the rhetoric of the politicians! Amongst the populace, there seems to be great confusion as to what defines a ‘traitor’ in todays’ Sri Lanka. As the term lies undefined, an air of uncertainty hovers darkly over Sri Lankans who are forthright, querying or even concerned about the future of their nation and her people. Speak out and question, and from some corner emanates an uncertain hiss of,  ‘Is that a Traitor…?’. To…

Continue reading »

JAYATISSA, JEYARAJ AND JACOBINISM: DEBATING ‘SRI LANKAN-NESS’ IN POST-WAR SRI LANKA

Nation

Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Guardian Much is being written nowadays about post-war Sri Lankan identity and the challenges of unity in diversity, among which are well-meaning interventions extolling the virtues of building a modernist, inclusive Sri Lankan nation that transcends narrow, parochial ethno-cultural identities. Given the fact that we completely and calamitously muffed the first opportunity to do so at the postcolonial historical moment, and fought a thirty-year ethnic conflict as a result, it ought to be strange that we should once again be resorting to this grand idea with such alacrity. That it is trotted out so uncritically and so often by patently well-intentioned, politically moderate and open-minded people – from the authors of the LLRC report to many political commentators and citizen journalists – demonstrates not only the pervasiveness of this idea in our political imagination but also the limits of that imagination. One such intervention is the recent article by Kamaya Jayatissa, in which a fervent argument…

Continue reading »

Thank you, Madam Navi Pillai

-

Photo courtesy JDS Thank you madam, for being the voice for the voiceless. The poverty stricken, wounded, displaced and marginalized Muslim and Tamil victims of the brutal thirty year war in our country have been forced into submission by the ruthless and racist Rajapakse regime which has gained a stranglehold over power through a deliberate and well planned conspiracy which was plotted out with impunity and arrogance to deny its citizens of democracy and justice. The regime is firmly entrenched through constitutional amendments passed in stealth and haste despite objections raised by an educated few for extended public debate and discussion warranted of significant changes. The Sinhala majority have also been hoodwinked with the glorification of the war and masking of human rights violations through the regime’s uniting call for patriotism against international conspirators who wish to destroy the country’s onward path to progress – which no one dares question why? The truth is that only a few have the…

Continue reading »

Youth unemployment in Sri Lanka: The foundations of violence?

Screen Shot 2012-02-29 at 8.26.12 PM

In an interview broadcast on public TV recently, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka and co-author of Rethinking the nexus between youth, unemployment and conflict – Perspectives from Sri Lanka looks into what is a real and growing problem in Sri Lanka – youth unemployment. As the report by International Alert notes, Likewise, youth unemployment cannot be looked at as an isolated problem: Its roots lie deep in social, cultural, economic and political structures and dynamics, as illustrated by some of the issues emerging from the district-level research. Enhancing young people’s skills, while necessary in countries where educational curricula and job market requirements do not match, will not be sufficient to overcome these barriers. In the interview. Dr. Amarasuriya speaks of a National Action Plan for Youth Employment, an initiative from a few years ago under the present government that no one now seems to recall, leave aside implement the…

Continue reading »
  • 27 Feb, 2012
  • 2 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Jaffna,
    Politics and Governance,
    Post-War

Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons: Plagiarism and the fate of LTTE surrendees

LTTEc.jpg.crop_display

Photo courtesy Deccan Chronicle When I first read Shamila’s piece posted on 24 February (Female ex-combatants of LTTE in post-war Sri Lanka), I had the strange feeling that I had read it before as it seemed very familiar. A moment later I realized that not only had I read it, I had actually written much of it. Shamila has both paraphrased, and quoted verbatim, a section of my piece titled Jaffna and the Vanni today: The reality beneath the rhetoric, posted on 17 March 2011, without giving due acknowledgement. Although Groundviews is a citizen journalism website, and not an academic journal, all those who contribute are expected to abide by accepted rules relating to due acknowledgment of sources and refrain from engaging in plagiarism. For ease of reference, I shall list below the striking similarities between the two pieces. It is the first section of Shamila’s piece that has been ‘borrowed’ from my article while it appears the second half…

Continue reading »

When a Prophet Speaks: Stephane Hessel on Sri Lanka

Stephane Hessel 2

A prophet spoke at the UNESCO in Paris this week, though he joked that having lived for 90 years, he had written thirty pages and found he had been turned into ‘a rock star’. Stephane Hessel, born in Germany in the year of the Russian revolution, is 95 years old. Anti-Nazi Resistance fighter, concentration camp survivor, diplomat and writer, he was 93 when he wrote a political essay of 13 pages, which grew into a booklet of only thirty pages, called Indignez–vous! In English this means ‘Be Indignant’ while the English language translation has been published under the title ‘Time for Outrage’. Between October and December 2010 it sold more than 600,000 copies. It has since sold a million copies in France alone and has been translated into 30 languages, selling 3.5 million copies worldwide. The left leaning newspaper Liberation, founded by Jean-Paul Sartre, says the booklet “crystallizes the spirit of the time”. The conservative National Post of Canada says…

Continue reading »
Page 5 of 79« First...34567...102030...Last »

About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

cezarneaga.eu
canakkale canakkale canakkale balik tutma search canakkale vergi mevzuati bagimsiz denetim vergi mevzuati ozurlu engelliler